Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times 10133710A
Would-be marathon participants volunteered Sunday in the storm-ravaged Cedar Grove section of Staten Island. More Photos »
If the New York City Marathon had not been canceled because of Hurricane Sandy last week, Michelle Leichtling would not have found herself in a grief-stricken neighborhood on Staten Island on Sunday, trying to salvage a stranger's soaking-wet wedding album.
Instead, she would have been standing at the finish line in Central Park, just as she did last year, handing out medals to hundreds of runners as they joyously accomplished their 26.2-mile goal.
As it turned out, Leichtling would not have had it any other way.
"It's an incredibly emotional experience to hand out the medals because finishing a marathon is such an amazing personal victory," said Leichtling, the director of programming at a Jewish community organization in Manhattan.
"But this?" she said as she slipped a 1980 photo of a beaming bride from an album slick with moisture. "It does not get more personal than this. I'm glad there was no marathon. This is exactly where we were supposed to be today."
Leichtling was one of thousands of marathon volunteers and runners who dedicated their Sunday to helping families whose houses were damaged or destroyed by the hurricane.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg canceled the marathon Friday afternoon amid a growing outcry against the race. Critics had said holding the marathon would be insensitive and a waste of city resources because millions in the area were still struggling.
"When the mayor first said the marathon would go on, we were still rescuing people, we were still finding bodies," said State Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, whose district includes the eastern shore of Staten Island, among the areas hardest hit. "I'm happy that the mayor came to his senses. And it's tremendous that marathoners have decided to come help us. We need it so badly."
At the same time that more than 47,000 runners were supposed to start the marathon on Staten Island on Sunday morning, an army of would-be runners from all over the world streamed onto the Staten Island Ferry, carrying backpacks and rolling luggage stuffed to the seams with food, water, diapers, pet food and other goods. One dragged a 30-inch suitcase weighed down with at least 75 pounds of clothing, batteries and snacks.
Some wore their marathon bib numbers. Many wore their orange long-sleeve T-shirts they received from race organizers.
"I wasn't comfortable running the marathon while people were still suffering right here in the city," said Neil Grencer, a high school math teacher from Poughkeepsie who was pushing a double stroller loaded with clothes, toiletries and food. "If they didn't cancel the race, I would've thought they were crazy. Even before they did, I just knew I had to do something to help."
Jes Milberg-Haydu, a Harlem resident, had looked forward to running her first marathon. But as soon as she saw what the residents were dealing with, she quickly realized that holding the marathon would have been a mistake.
Along Cedar Grove Avenue on Staten Island, she saw homes torn apart, cars tossed into front yards and mountains of garbage.
"It was the right decision to cancel, as it was the right decision to come together this way to help," she said.
David Walton, whose wife was among the marathoners, found himself on a bike with a backpack full of garbage bags and other supplies in New Dorp Beach. Though residents were gladly taking the bags, he said he felt helpless.
"We are giving trash bags to people who don't have houses left," Walton said.
But the residents were grateful, so much so that some were overcome with tears.
Most residents were vehemently against the city holding a race that would have commanded the presence of about 1,000 police officers and generators that could have been used in the many areas without power.
Melissa Kruppa, who was helping her friends clear debris from their home Sunday, said she was still taken aback by the thought of having a race in her borough.
"I'm sick that they would even consider having it," she said.
"I feel for them," she said of the runners, "but this is people's lives."
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